


Come Home to Me

by theredhood



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics)
Genre: M/M, Mild Angst, mentions of past jayroy/joyfire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-21 23:30:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14295819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theredhood/pseuds/theredhood
Summary: Kyle comes back to Earth and Jason wants to be happy, he really does, but he's not sure if he can handle him leaving again...





	Come Home to Me

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: "What, and you think that this is enough for me? You think that this - whatever this is, you think this is always going to be enough?"

Jason hates that he can’t just enjoy himself. Kyle’s been in space for five months and is finally home but he’s stuck in this emotional loop of pouting, whining, and isolating himself. It’s not like he wants to stay in this bad mood, god only knows how long Kyle is staying for again, but he can’t help but get frustrated. They’re sitting in Kyle’s apartment on his couch that’s more paint than cushion. Jason has a book in one hand and Kyle’s in his other. The lantern is perched on the arm of the couch and has his sketchbook in his lap, absentmindedly sketching out the lines of his window at the brief look outside it allows him.

 

Jason tries not to watch him. There’s something oddly fluid about how Kyle moves when he’s alone or thinks no one’s watching. His fingers are curled around his pencil and his hands make gentle swoops all over the previously blank page, leaving behind light traces of orange. It’s sunset out and Jason has to leave to patrol soon. He presses further into Kyle’s side and elects to ignore Gotham. Batman’s crusade against evil was constant but Kyle’s warmth was most tragically not. He gazes back to the book he’s holding, trying to focus on the words of Oscar Wilde. It’s easier said than done, Kyle has always been alluring to him but the combined fading heat from the setting sun and the warm orange and pink hues make him damn near impossible to look away from. His dark hair is framing his face just perfectly and he has a bit of charcoal smudge on his cheek from when he was working on commissions earlier. Jason wants to tell him how breath-taking he is, how absolutely maddening it is to be sharing the same space as him. Instead, all he manages out is a “you’re a dumbass.”

 

Kyle lets out a low laugh and huffs, blowing a stray lock of hair out of his eyes. They’re silent for a few more seconds before he finally looks up from his sketchpad and looks to Jason, a soft and warm smile on his face, “and why is that?”

 

“Because you’re here,” Jason starts, then stops. He’s a good writer, he’s written multiple journals of poem after poem and he’s never gotten less than perfect on his essays in school. Jason knows how to write, yes, but only because he can sit there and stare at the words on his page and compose draft after draft until it’s just the way he wants it. But talking? Talking is difficult. Jason bites his tongue and starts again, “you’re here….” pause, “and you’re here right next to me, looking so goddamn perfect, and you’re here and you’re not kissing me, and I know you’re gonna leave again and -”

 

“Jason,” Kyle cuts him off. He’s talking in the same low voice Bruce used to use when he wasn’t sure what Jason would do or how he would react. He knows Kyle doesn’t mean anything by it but it makes Jason curl in on himself and want to shut off. It’s a bad habit, distancing himself and closing off, but he’s done it since he was a kid crawling around crime alley and he doubts it’ll stop any time soon. Jason can feel Kyle’s eyes on him but he can’t make himself react to it or acknowledge it. Cautiously, Kyle reaches out and rests his hand on Jason’s shoulder. When Jason doesn’t react negatively, he pulls the book out of his hand and sets it on the table to his side. “Jason,” he says again, still softly but with less unsureness. Kyle lowers himself from the arm of the chair and sits sideways on Jason’s lap, back against the arm. The hand he had on his shoulder moves up to the back of Jason’s head so he can play with his hair and his free hand to the other side of Jason’s face. 

 

“I’m sorry,” he begins, “I know I haven’t been fair to you because of all this space stuff.” Jason presses his face into Kyle’s palm and acknowledges he’s listening. Kyle runs warm, he always has, but the white ring on his finger is freezing. Kyle leans in just slightly, giving Jason the opportunity to pull away. When he doesn’t, Kyle closes the space between them and kisses him. It’s both everything and nothing like Jason thought he would kiss. It’s soft and inviting but Kyle pushes back and is steadfast in taking lead. When he pulls away he smiles ever so warmly and rubs the pad of his thumb across Jason’s cheekbone. “Can you forgive me?”

 

Jason twitches his nose and frowns. He’s still upset, Kyle kissing him did nothing to fix the problem. Apologies are nice but Jason knows people, knows things won’t change unless someone does something about it. Which is why Bruce still pushes him away, why Dick acts like he’s perfect and happy all the time, or why Jason just can’t let himself be happy. “What difference was that supposed to make?” he asks, voice coming off angrier than he really is. 

 

“Jay…” Kyle begins but he’s caught off guard by Jason picking him up and moving him off his lap. 

 

“Don’t ‘Jay’ me,” he snaps. He regrets it instantly but he’s too stubborn to apologize. “You can barely handle a long distance friendship, nonetheless a long distant relationship.”

 

“Jason, that’s unfair and you know it-”

 

  _“I’ve been to space, Kyle! I know how being a lantern works. I also know you have a fuckin’ built in communicator in that ring that gets reception anywhere and I also know you don’t call!”_   Jason pulls his shoulders back and scrunches his nose like he always does when he’s angry, or when he’s trying to fake tough or trying not to cry. Right now, he’s doing it for all three reasons. “I spent nine months in space with Kori and Roy in a whackass spaceship and I had _no_  problem sending in my weekly updates to Bruce.”

 

“I was scared, Jason! Okay?” Kyle snaps back, crossing his arms. “I thought you weren’t interested in me like that and I didn’t wanna seem clingy and have you leave. You act like me leaving for space is some huge and terrible fucking sin but I always come back! When you leave you disappear for God knows how long and you rarely show your face again.”

 

“Kyle-”

 

“That’s what you did with Batman and all of them!” He spats back, “I leave because I’m literally forced to, you leave because you think it’s easier on people! You think your family doesn’t miss you, Jason? You think Bruce and Alfred don’t want you to come home even if it’s just for Sunday brunch? Alfred calls your apartment and invites you _every single week_  and you ignore him! And on top of that you ignore your damn friends too! Kori didn’t walk out on you guys! She gave you plenty of ways to contact her and you still reacted horribly. So you know what you did? You also abandoned the only other Outlaw left!”

 

“You’re right, okay! You’re right,” Jason manages to hiss back, “I get it, I’m an asshole, but you don’t know shit about what happened with Kori and Roy. _I loved them!_  I loved them and when Kori left everything changed and Roy was heartbroken and leaving him was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I didn’t leave Roy because I was angry. I left because I was in love with him and it being just the two of us was killing him.”

 

“What do you mean it was killing him?” Kyle asked, the anger only leaving his voice a little.

 

“I almost got him killed on live TV, they had a vote on if they should kill him and he was losing bad. He has a kid, Kyle. A little girl could have lost her father because Roy and I only ignite each other’s flames. We worked well together but without Kori we had no stopping point. I had to leave because I knew it was the right thing to do.”

 

“Jason…” Kyle starts, fingers playing with the ring on his hand, “I didn’t realize. Fuck, I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry.”

 

Jason sighs and counts to ten in his head. He doesn’t wanna be mad at Kyle so he forces himself to calm down before speaking again. “It’s… okay.” There’s another pause as Jason thinks before he speaks again. “You have every right to call me a hypocrite given my track record and I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you. I just. You leave every time I think things are getting more serious and then when you come back and it more or less starts all over again.”

 

"What, and you think that this is enough for me, Jason?” He asks, “you think that this - whatever this is, you think this is always going to be enough? That I like getting close to you and then leaving? I like you, Jason, alright? I wanna be your stupid boyfriend.”

 

“Sorry,” Jason snorts, “I’m already in a relationship with Oscar Wilde.” Kyle rolls his eyes and yanks on a few stray curls on the back of Jason’s head. “My boyfriend is the revolution.” Kyle groans and pulls him forever by the back of the neck and kisses him. 

 

“Stop interrupting with stupid jokes,” he laughs “talk about your feelings, asshole.”

 

Jason complies and leans in, then kisses the side of Kyle’s cheek, “I have a crush on a space cowboy. You’ve lasso’d my heart, Kyle.”

 

“Yeehaw, asshole.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have been writing this inbetween classes for over two weeks now.


End file.
